News-Antique.com - Feb 22,2008 - San Francisco, California - February 23, 2008 - In the last or so decade, there has been a huge influx of porcelain items, especially figurines and other decorative porcelain objects, that are marked with what appear to be older European or American marks. Most of these items are of high quality, but are not antique. The vast majority of these come from China, or Asia in general, and usually do not have a country of origin mark.

"We get hundreds of these marks as inquiries from our members" says Lisa Marion of www.Marks4Antiques.com. "Usually, our researchers can tell right away that these lovely porcelain items are made in China; however, many of the marks are so similar to authentic antique marks that require a more detailed look". Marks4Antiques.com continually updates its databases and includes all newer porcelain marks as soon as they are encountered. This way, members of the site can quickly determine the authenticity of their antiques and avoid costly mistakes.

For example, items made for export to the US after 1891, must also declare the country of origin. This requirement was enacted into law based on several Tariff Acts in the 1890s. Older items usually include the country of origin as part of their overall trademark or have the words "Germany" or "England", "France" etc near the actual porcelain mark. However, many recent Asian imports get away with this legal requirement by using a sticker or label, which is often removed or lost after the itemís entry to the US.

Luckily, there are some other ways to recognize most of these forged or imitation porcelain marks. Here are some tips that are easy to follow:

1) Examine the mark around the edges using a Magnifying Lens: If the mark appears too perfect and perhaps applied using some industrial machine, then the mark is probably recent. In these cases, the mark is usually stamped or at times slightly raised or impressed. Most items made prior to 1950 had their marks applied by hand, so these stamps would wear out or the firmness with which they were applied varied from worker to worker or over time. Older porcelain marks are not as clear or sharp at the edges.

2) If the mark is a shape or symbol, look closely: Most recent porcelain marks are close imitations of older authentic marks used by Meissen, Sevres, Chantilly, English Staffordshire Potteries (usually Coats of Arms or Crests), Gardner etc. However, almost always they differ in one or two minor details, such as the endings do not curl the same or have symbols that are obscure or are out of scale. Although some older authentic antique marks were applied in free hand style, using an Artistís thin brush, the difference is still visible once you have seen several versions of the original mark.